Coccyx Bone Spurs, Plantar Heel Spurs, Shoulder Bone Spurs

What are bone spurs and how do they cause coccyx pain (tailbone pain, coccydynia), foot pain, or shoulder pain?

Bone spurs: What Are They?

A bone spur is an area where there is thickening of the bone. It is made of bone. It is bone.

Just like your skin can become thickened skin and form a skin callous. Similarly, the bone can become thickened bone and form a spur.

On imaging studies, a bone spur often looks like an icicle hanging down from your rain gutter.

Bone spurs: Where Are They?

A bone spur can form on essentially any bone.

Some of the most common areas for bone spurs include:

Heel spur: this is a bone spur on the calcaneal bone on the sole of your foot. Is often seen in people who have plantar fasciitis. A classic symptom is if you have pain with walking. Especially common is pain on the sole of your foot when taking your 1st step in the morning.

Shoulder spur: this bone spur is sometimes called a subacromial bone spur. The bone spur presses or pinches into the rotator cuff muscles or tendons. With this, you would probably have pain with trying to reach overhead.

Coccyx bone spur: This is a bone spur on the lower tip of the coccyx (tailbone). When this happens, instead of the lower tip of the tailbone being rounded for words (like the bottom of her rocking chair), instead the bone spur points downward or backwards. If you have a bone spur on the lower tip of your tailbone, then sitting down causes the spur to pinch the skin in between the spur and the chair that you’re sitting on. Sitting leaning partway backwards (partially reclining) can be especially painful.

Do bone spurs in one part of the body increase your risk for bone spurs in other parts of your body?

I have had MANY patients over the years where I diagnose a coccygeal bone spur and as I am explaining it to them they respond by saying they already have a diagnosis of a plantar bone spur (plantar fasciitis).

It raises the question as to whether someone having bone spurs in one part of the body are more likely to also have bone spurs in another part of the body.

To my knowledge, there has never been a formal study to see whether bone spurs at the coccyx are also associated with bone spurs in other body regions.

But there may be some association, since the findings and symptoms are somewhat similar, just in a different location.